... to this point where you're now completely befuddled and potentially considering an active campaign against you?

So unfortunately, it's months before we really get our heads around it, because at first you're just, uh, dealing with the, the volume of consumer outreach and customer outreach.

And so it's just immediately reacting to that.

Um, and we connect with, um, some fact-checkers who are, you know, thank goodness for the work that they do, this thankless job.

Um, but we were able to get, um, some folks to look into the situation and, you know, prepare their own opinion with regards to the fact checks.

So that was kind of happening.

But it just, like, wasn't letting up, and that was the part that was so confusing, just for as, like, a, I don't know, an average rational human being was like, "Oh, this is this misunderstanding." I think we provided information.

Uh, how have you all responded to, to that since then? Like how have you, I hate to say it, rebuilt trust with your customers?

nice nice and that's it that's where you started yeah tell me more about appeal now then so if you can break down exactly what appeal is today and maybe why it isn't as well

yeah maybe let's start with what it isn't so um touched on it but I didn't have a chance to elaborate it's kind of like how is fresh produce's shelf life extended after harvest today Well, we rely on a cold chain or refrigeration, um, but that is pretty energy intensive and infrastructure intensive.

So, you know, I think if you're maybe in a more, um, developed market, you can maintain a cold chain from the farm or the field pretty much all the way into our homes, but that's really not true for a large percentage of the global population.

Um, and, uh, because it's just, you know, expensive and energy intensive to, to try to stand up and maintain.

Um, you have a kind of long legacy of like maybe post-harvest pesticide use, um, maybe wax use for example, but wax is, we would say are often applied maybe for shine.

So it's an aesthetic appearance for the, um, People, it's kind of like said and known that people shop with their eyes.

So this kind of, you know, glossy, beautiful display may sort of, you know, draw folks in right away.

How can you describe how the impact it had on, you know, the business, the team and you personally as well?

Like, how did this problem find you?

Yeah.

Well, it started off actually way back in 2012 with, um, our primary founder, James Rogers.

You know, we were graduate students, post-docs at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with no background in ag and- or food in any way, shape, or form.

And James had come across the UN FAO's report on food loss and waste.

Um, and with that, learning that a third of the food that we produce worldwide is lost or wasted before it ever has a chance to be eaten, uh, and then with really perishable categories, like fresh fruits and vegetables, that high- that number can be even higher.

That was just a really staggering stat to come across, and kind of changed our worldview.

Now, where can people learn more about Apeel, and what is the best next step for someone who wants to get involved?

Yeah.

So that's an example with plastic that kind of makes its way all the way into the home.

But there's a lot of hidden plastic that we don't see that's used upstream as well.

So sometimes a box of fruit will be packed up on a pallet, and then that's how it actually gets shipped in trucks or shipping containers and then delivered into grocery stores.

But there are some practices that wrap those whole pallets or individual boxes almost in plastic that's just used one time.

They do that because they don't want the fruit to lose water.

So much is, um, dependent on refrigeration.

Right.

Yancey and Jenny discuss how they each found the spark that led to their success and why it's important to love our own weird ways of being.

In a way, it's not about like me or us and our beautiful ideas.

It is about the why we want to do it and who else is it for and knowing that there will be benefits to many other people if we can find a way to get it right.

Love how your career has been on like disrupting the status quo, kind of breaking those structures down.

You did it at Kickstarter and now with your new artist corporation structure.

Like let's just like take it back almost.

Why has it been important to shake the institutions and these like normal ways of working?

Hmm.

And stick around after the talk for a Q&A between Jenny and Latif Nasser, the co-host of Radiolab and a guest curator at TED 2025.

When you pick a piece of fruit off a tree, it's like a ticking time bomb.

It's literally this living and breathing thing that's slowly cannibalizing its own stores of energy and nutrients, just trying to stay alive until it ultimately gets eaten by microbes or some other animal like us.

Have you ever wondered why that is and what could be done about it? My journey in trying to figure that out started in the spring of 2013.

I'm finishing up my post-doctoral research in chemistry at the University of Santa Barbara, California, and all that really means is I'm a huge nerd and I've been in school for way too long [laughs] and, um, trying to figure out how to put all that training to meaningful use.

So two of my lab mates, James Rogers and Louis Perez, invite me to dinner, but it turns out to be a pitch disguised as dinner, and they opened by totally flooring me with some staggering stats.

A third of the food that we produce worldwide is lost or wasted before it ever has a chance to be eaten.

A lick test